Edge rusher Rueben Bain flashed some serious potential during his first training camp, leading some folks to wonder if NFL teams, including our friends down in L.A., the Rams, would seriously regret letting him fall to the Buccaneers at pick 15. Well, after five weeks of the regular season, that question has a remarkably clear answer: nope. The Bucs haven’t been able to hide Bain on the bench, and frankly, he hasn’t exactly made anyone regret anything.
Bain’s Early Season: The Numbers Don’t Lie
Through the three games Bain’s actually been active this season, he’s logged 111 snaps. In that time, he’s tallied three tackles, zero sacks, and zero QB hits. And get this, his pressure count? It’s somewhere between zero and four. Yeah, not exactly tearing it up out there. His first career run tackle just happened on Thursday night against the Cowboys, in what was a surprising first win of the season for the Bucs. An earlier snapshot from Football Stinkers even had him at a brutal 38.7 PFF Grade, ranked 110th out of 110 edge rushers! Woof.
The pressure numbers are a bit of a mixed bag depending on who you ask. Next Gen Stats had Bain with four pressures and a 9.8% pressure rate going into Week 5, putting him around 80th among 123 edge rushers with at least 25 pass rushes. But even they noted his average time to pressure was 3.35 seconds, which is the 29th-longest in that group. Pro-Football-Reference still has him down for zero pressures in 2026. If his snaps against Dallas on Thursday included zero pressures, then his rate would drop down to a measly 7%. Plus, Bain is the only Buccaneers edge rusher who hasn’t even recorded a run stop, which means a run tackle that creates a negative play for the offense. It’s just not clicking.
Rams’ Draft Philosophy Wins The Day (So Far)
Remember all the talk about the Rams potentially passing on “better options” than quarterback Ty Simpson, who they took at pick 13? Names like Bain, Makai Lemon, and Kenyon Sadiq were thrown around as guys who could “help you NOW!” The Rams, though, were thinking long-term with Simpson, who, by the way, has yet to be active for an NFL game himself. But here’s the kicker: of those supposed immediate impact players, only tight end Kenyon Sadiq has even had a single good game this season, and he’s now coming off his worst performance of 2026. Makai Lemon is listed as one of the least productive receivers out there. Ouch.
Rams coach Sean McVay said after the draft that if picking someone else would have “ensured that we’re going to show at SoFi Stadium next year,” meaning play in the Super Bowl in 2026, he would have signed up for it instantly. Right now, you just can’t make a credible case that Rueben Bain or Makai Lemon would have done that for them. Their plan for Simpson might be a slow burn, but it looks like avoiding the “immediate help” options that haven’t delivered was the right call.
It’s crystal clear that the early training camp hype around Rueben Bain has evaporated. For the Rams, it seems their long-term vision with Ty Simpson is holding strong, at least in the face of what the alternative “immediate impact” guys are actually producing. The Bucs, on the other hand? They’re still desperately searching for anything to go right this season, and Bain’s performance isn’t helping.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Turf Show Times.
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